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Out of the Pie, Into the Muffin

I’VE never been much of a muffin maker. If I’m going to bake, I’d prefer to make a whole cake. But there is one kind of muffin that I heartily embrace — an upside-down fruit muffin.

Its small, individual size encourages the fruit to condense and caramelize as it bakes. Then, when you unmold the muffin, the fruit transforms into a glistening crown of an irresistible sticky topping.

And there’s no need to serve it with butter and jam, since they’re already baked into the muffin in lavish proportions.

Photo

Credit
Andrew Scrivani for The New York Times

Usually, I bake upside-down muffins in the summer when I can pack them with cherries, nectarines and berries. But recently, I had the idea to try them with apples. The new crop was just coming into season, looking crisp and taut and generally more attractive than the last of the summer peaches.

Since apples always make me think of apple pie, I decided to use brown sugar instead of white sugar to sauté the fruit. Then I added the apples to a skillet with what old-fashioned cookbooks would call a large knob of butter. While I let it all stew, I mixed together a simple, sour-cream-enriched muffin batter, and with apple pie still on the brain, I added a sprinkling of cinnamon.

As the muffins baked, the kitchen smelled like autumn, rich with sweet spices and sugary fruit, and I counted the minutes until the timer rang. Then I let the muffins rest for a few minutes before gobbling one up.

I was having friends over to brunch later that morning. And as I licked the syrupy, golden apple drips from my fingers, I was grateful I hadn’t baked a whole cake because I didn’t have to wait for my guests to arrive to dig in.

A version of this article appears in print on October 6, 2010, on Page D2 of the New York edition with the headline: Out Of the Pie, Onto The Muffin. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe